Two academics from the University of Guelph have made it to the semi-finals in a global competition for a $2 million Food System Vision Prize.
Their idea calls for changing agriculture across Southwestern Ontario to shift from heavy reliance on large-scale corn, soybean and wheat production to more small-scale and diverse crop production using less commercial fertilizer and pesticides.
They envision “truly integrative agricultural practices” by 2050, including sharing of land use to increase biodiversity and stronger governmental supports for small-scale agricultural enterprises.
PhD student René Sahba Shahmohamadloo and Prof.Paul Sibley of the Environmental Sciences Department worked with the university’s Arrell Food Institute, the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario, the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, the Alternative Land Use Systems (ALUS) organization for Canada, the municipally supported Guelph-Wellington Our Food Future Initiative, the University of Windsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, and the Grey Bruce Centre for Agroecology.
If they make it to the finals, they will get $200,000 which they intend to use first to organize a series of workshops for all levels of the province’s agri-food sector, to brainstorm the 2050 vision.
While their work focuses on Southwestern Ontario, they think it would have broad application across North America.
It is refreshing to see this pair working so hard on concepts that have no funding from large corporations. Instead of profit, they are motivated by improving the environment and communities.
